In Turkey where the fresh artichoke hearts are so beautifully cleaned and so readily available on street corners, in the local markets as well as the big supermarkets, we usually think of stuffing them with the classic Turkish filling of diced carrot, potato and perhaps a scattering of peas. Or, early springtime, with broadbeans or…

I was really pleased with the way this cake turned out. It was reminiscent of revani because of the syrup that’s poured over the cooked cake at the end: it seems like a lot but amazingly the cake comfortably absorbs it all. orange & almond syrup cake with chocolate icing – an optional extra! The…

I am not anti-meat or anything but I do feel we should eat as much fish as possible. If you have been following my blog, you will know that I am quite Ottolenghi-addicted. I love his recipes mainly because they use the ingredients that I am completely familiar with here in Turkey but he uses…

When I spied a recipe with a similar picture way back in July, I mentally earmarked it for now, when the quinces and pomegranates are in abundance here in Istanbul. Coriander is something of a rarity here but not totally impossible to track down. I do love the flavour. Because it’s not commonly used, I…

Like mercury, October has slipped through my fingers. It has been very much a month of getting back to the realities of life here in Istanbul after the joys of summer which means getting back together with old friends and rejoining all the familiar and well-loved activities like book club, scrabble, neighbourhood coffee mornings, IWI,…

I seem to have been stuffing and filling a lot of veggies recently, some with more success than others. It all depends on the quality of what you are stuffing and of course, on the the stuffing itself. There are so many variables, it makes you dizzy. Recipes try their best to keep you on…

This is a recipe straight out of Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem and it pushes all my buttons. I am never quite sure that Swiss chard is what here in Turkey we call pazı but I am proceeding as though it is. We never had this vegetable when we were growing up and I wonder if it even…

We all seem to love hummus! Amazing when you think that way back we’d never heard of the stuff. Did your mother use chickpeas? Did anyone know what tahini was? We were just getting used to garlic, for heaven’s sake! But I think our taste buds have changed or it’s just that we’ve become more…

Being stuck at home with your leg in plaster is not totally without its compensations: I have never been so up on the news in my life! Vive l’internet! So, I’ve been catching up on multiple computer tasks plus reading all sorts of papers including my favourite, the Guardian. And so it was that I have discovered the cooking bit: it’s…

Mmmmm. Need I say more? Who knows Ottolenghi? Last May when we stayed in Islington was the first time I came across this cafe, deli, patisserie and bakery known by this distinctive name. And there are cookbooks too! This one is called simply ‘Ottolenghi The Cookbook’. It contains recipes for exactly the kind of food…